Scaling paths

Using paths

Scaling paths

The Scale tool scales the selected part of a path. First select the segments you wish to scale; see Selecting knots, segments and paths. Then click and drag with this tool. The selected segments are scaled about an origin that is marked with a cross. As you move the tool nearer to the origin, the path gets smaller; as you move it further away, the path gets larger.

If the origin is in the wrong position, you can either drag it with the Scale tool, or you can Alt-click where it should be.

The tool normally scales the path by the same amount horizontally and vertically as you drag, but you can constrain the scaling in various ways:

If you Shift-drag, this scales the path horizontally only, vertically only, or both ways at once (i.e.the normal way it works); this depends on the direction in which you drag. For example, to stretch the path horizontally you would Shift-drag horizontally.

If you Ctrl-drag, this scales the path horizontally and vertically so as to preserve its area; as it stretches in one direction, it squashes in the other direction.

If you Ctrl-Shift-drag, this removes all constraints from the scaling. You can stretch or squash the path by differing amounts horizontally and vertically.

Using paths

Scaling paths